If you see signs of tampering, or you see that the card’s PIN has been exposed, don’t purchase the card. Whether you choose a card from a rack or have a clerk hand it to you, always examine both sides of what you’re buying before paying for it, even when that means removing the item from its packaging to do so. While the e-mailed alert suggests selecting cards only from areas rendered inaccessible to the public (that is, in situations where the check-out clerk has to hand them to you rather than removing them from the rack yourself), keep in mind that store clerks have themselves been known to steal, and don’t count on the isolation of the cards as surefire and certain protection against this form of fraud. Likewise, so would a consumer who looked at both sides of a card he was considering buying but failed to understand the significance of the card’s PIN already being easily readable. If someone were to subsequently buy that card without first fully examining it (that is, removing it from its packaging to look at both sides of it), he would leave the store with a breachable card in his possession. However, the thief’s act of replacing the card onto its cardboard placard does serve to hide the defacement of the card’s PIN-protection coating. Said PIN is obscured on the card’s back in a manner that requires a covering be scratched away to reveal it. Many retailers who have been hit with gift card fraud have come to require that a specific PIN be keyed in along with the card’s number in situations where the card itself is not being handed to a clerk. While a value drainer could in many cases acquaint himself with an unpurchased card’s number with great ease simply by looking at the back of the card (prying it from its cardboard base if necessary and then repositioning the plastic neatly back onto its placard), he could not easily conceal that he’d been at the PIN incumbent to the card, a key piece of information he would need to have if he were to use the card online (aka in “card not present” situations). And even among those, only the ones that don’t offer additional security measures in the form of encoded PINs (that rightful cardholders have to acquaint themselves with in order to use their cards online) are undefendable against this form of theft. They say more common types of gift card fraud are resellers’ overstating the value of the cards they’re offering, and thieves’ using stolen credit cards to purchase gift cards which they turn around and sell for cash.Ĭertainly the warning being circulated in e-mail (which was issued by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department as a 9 November 2006 “ Fraud Alert“) does not apply to all gift cards, but only to those that can be used in “card not present” (aka “CNP”) situations, such as when making purchases online. Some retail and law enforcement groups have suggested that although the type of gift card fraud described above has been known to occur, it’s relatively rare, and fears of gift card theft are greatly exaggerated. We’re not sure how seriously to regard this warning. When they find ones that have, they use them to make online (“card not present” aka “CNP”) purchases and so drain them of their cash value before their rightful owners attempt to use them.
Swindlers make note of the numbers displayed on cards being offered for sale, then periodicallyĬheck to see if these numbers have gone live that is, that the cards bearing them have been purchased and loaded with monetary values. According to the alert of the moment, unsuspecting consumers are being defrauded of the values housed in gift cards they purchase off the rack in stores.
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